#15 - June 18th 2007 – Southwestern Uganda Trip – Lake Bunyonyi

Jumping outta that box…

These last few days have been…how can I even describe them? This island has been a sanctuary for my mind, a release, a relief, a time to decompress and rejuvenate. Life in Kampala is amazing, but sometimes its necessary to remove yourself from a situation in order to get some perspective, in order to reevaluate what you’ve been doing and reaffirm your purpose. All too often we stay within the box, continuing the same patters and routines over and over, too afraid or too comfortable to change things. I don’t think this is the way we are supposed to live. I just finished reading “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, which cautions against staying in one place too long. The story follows a young Spanish shepard as he sets out to discover his destiny, traveling across the northern deserts of Africa, learning life’s lessons along the way. The most important moral taught is to throw caution to the wind and follow your destiny. The author says that “to die alive is to take risks. To pay your price. To do something that sometimes scared you but you should do because you may like it.” You may be afraid of failure but “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” This boy could have remained a shepard his whole life and been perfectly content, but instead he chose to take a chance, sell his flock and do what he’d always dreamt of doing. I think all too often we find a place where we are comfortable, maybe not even that happy, and we stay there because we are afraid of going through the stress and difficulty of change. Yes, change is always difficult, but the last hour before dawn is the darkest. If anything, this trip to Africa has taught me that taking chances and following your dreams can lead to the most wondrous discoveries. Discoveries of other cultures, new people and different ways to live; discoveries about yourself, where you came from, and most importantly, where you are going. We’ve all had personal experience with “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone,” which is often meant to say that you never appreciate something until you lose it, but can also mean that you didn’t know you could have something better. If you stay in one place you’ll never know how you would feel somewhere else. Worst case scenario you can always go back to where you were, but I’d be willing to bet that won’t happen.

The travelers I meet here all seem to be people who follow their dreams, not just dreams of coming to Africa, but in their lives back home as well. These are not rich people, just people who know what they want, follow their hearts and head off in the direction of their destinies. They don’t know where the road will lead and they expect to meet the unexpected, but they trust that they will be delivered, in due time, to the right destination. I’ve always felt certain yearnings that I’ve pushed aside for the reasons that come with a thousand excuses; What if it doesn’t work out? What if I’m not up to the task? What if I drop everything here and I fail, then what? What if its impossible? But I think the most important question to ask yourself is, Will I ever be completely satisfied if I don’t try? Will I be living up to my full potential, getting everything I can out of this life? When I die, will I be able to say that I really lived? Maybe it is better to risk living and losing, than to never really live at all.

~Nicole